Honey Bee Initiative

The Marvel universe isn't the only place where insects and other invertebrates have superpowers. Mason faculty, staff, and students are studying and explaining the many roles these creatures play on our planet, learning more about a bug's life—and the big world surrounding them—every step of the way. This edition of Around Mason offers a recap of some of those stories.

Culminating the 2022/2023 season at the Center for the Arts at George Mason University,  Indigenous Enterprise engaged with George Mason University’s campus as well as the local Fairfax community as a  Mason Artist-in-Residence over the course of the last week in April.  

Faculty and students at George Mason University are conducting impactful environmental research with the help of the Business for a Better World Center's Honey Bee Initiative.

The Honey Bee Initiative and the Sweet Virginia Foundation are kindred spirits in educating about the importance of the honeybee in an effort to make the world a better place. 

Faculty, staff, and students from three units across Mason have worked together to create a new VR experience so elementary students can take a “field trip” to the Mason apiary and learn from an expert beekeeper.

An article in the Fairfax County Times explains the Honey Bee Initiative’s Hive Alive project.

For the past decade, Mason alum Germán Perilla, cofounder and director of the Honey Bee Initiative, has led Mason’s honey bee efforts.

This spring a small team of George Mason University students used the Patriot Green Fund to enhance the diversity of the university’s Honey Bee Pollinator Garden. This garden, which sits outside of Roberts House on the Mason’s Fairfax Campus, serves as a biodiverse pollinator haven for the bees currently residing nearby in one of the Honey Bee Initiative’s apiaries.

A collaboration between the Honey Bee Initiative and Mason's new Forensic Science Research and Training Laboratory could yield critical advances in forensic science.